Just thought I'd post some pics of the Roll Bar I built in my friends Miata. Let me know what you guys think.

- Material used is 1.75" X 0.120 DOM tubing. All floor plates are 1/8" steel.

Before paint:












Primed:


Painted:

 

Looks very upright.. but good!

 

Why did you decide to mount the base of the main hoop on the floor pan instead of the top of the shelf? It seems that you would be able to run a continious horizontal, shorter upright (stronger), and achieve more room by mounting it 6inches back.

I'm about to get a roll bar put in as well on the S2k - every design I've ecountered mounts the base on top the shelf including the factory roll hoops.

Otherwise, the work looks awesome

 

I mounted the base to the floor because with it mounted to the shelf portion, the rear legs were way to parallel with the main hoop. There isn't much room in a small car like a miata to extend the rear legs back to make it more stable in case of a roll over.

Thanks for the comments

Goodluck with your S2K, and post up some pics when she's done

 

valid point - I forget, Miatas are indeed exceptionally tiny cars. Very good design considering the soft top is still intact and functional (?)

can you PM for what you typically charge for this type of work. thanks!

 

Yeah Miata's are VERY VERY tiny cars, but they handle great! The soft top is indeed intact and 100% functional. The top of the main hoop rests no more then 1/8" below the soft top. If you push down on the soft top, you can feel the top of the main hoop, but you cant see it protruding the leather.

 

Awesome, now he has somewhere to hang his purse while he's autocrossing

Just playin, looks good man, what else does he have done to the car? I've always wanted a Miata

 

What was the roll bar built for?

Wheel to Wheel, Solo 2???

 

Wasn't built for any specific class. He does alot of canyon running, and does some drifting. Wanted it mostly for safety if something were to happen at the canyon, and to get the chassis a little more rigid.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by superdgsr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Wasn't built for any specific class. He does alot of canyon running, and does some drifting. Wanted it mostly for safety if something were to happen at the canyon, and to get the chassis a little more rigid.</TD></TR></TABLE>
. . . and all of a sudden, it turned to ****.

IBTL.

 

I don't think it should be locked if someone else is doing that crap, threads about the rollbar. I'm not expert, but it looks good to me. Only thing I can spot out is the harness bar is curved or angled where he would attach a harness to, not sure if that matters or not.

 

tell the "kid" to go to a track. Keep that **** off the streets! Its much safer for him, and everyone else if he keeps it on the track. It's also cheaper!

 

IBTL

Trying to make a "canyon racer" safer, would be like reinforcing the superstructure of the Titanic.

The main point was that if the kid ever wanted (came to his senses) to go race in real sanctioned events, the roll bar now throws him into some pretty fast/expensive classes which will be severly disaoppointing/discouraging, and send him running back to his toooogayyy roads...

Rule books are your friend.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mtbprelude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">IBTL

Trying to make a "canyon racer" safer, would be like reinforcing the superstructure of the Titanic.

The main point was that if the kid ever wanted (came to his senses) to go race in real sanctioned events, the roll bar now throws him into some pretty fast/expensive classes which will be severly disaoppointing/discouraging, and send him running back to his toooogayyy roads...

Rule books are your friend.


</TD></TR></TABLE>

And if he didn't want to race, but to just enjoy track days safely? It would be perfectly fine.

 

I understand that people have there own beliefs, and there own opinions on things, and I think thats great. But I wish people would be a little more open minded about things. Not making a statement to anyone in particular. But everytime someone starts a thread, there's always someone who makes a negative comment based on what there interests are, and seem to throw out the fact that people are into different things and what they think may not be the same as someone else's.

I built the bar as the customer wanted. I cant tell him to keep off the mountains, and go to the track, I'm not his dad. If he likes running in the canyons, he's gonna keep doing it.

Will the roll bar help him if he was to roll over versus not having anything at all, yes it would. Does it stiffen up his chassis a little, sure! In my eyes, and most importatntly in the customers eyes, I did what he wanted.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by superdgsr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Will the roll bar help him if he was to roll over versus not having anything at all, yes it would.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Will it help a minivan full of 3-year olds if he were to crash into them while participating in street jackassery? No.

This is the "Road Racing/Autocross" forum - not the "Canyon Idiocy" forum.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by superdgsr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Will the roll bar help him if he was to roll over versus not having anything at all, yes it would. Does it stiffen up his chassis a little, sure! In my eyes, and most importatntly in the customers eyes, I did what he wanted. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Actually all the roll bar is going to do is smash his head like a watermelon when he rolls the car on a canyon road... because for sure he isn't going to be wearing a helmet, and even with race padding he's going to have a severe concussion, or worse.

[Edit] Since you asked for opinions on the bar: In the case of a rollover, IMO the rear legs don't extend far enough backwards, and outwards: the rear diagonals need to extend about 3" inches farther back, and out. It should be just interfering with the tops final few inches of droping the top.

And as mentioned, the cross bar behind the driver, where one would mount a harness is curved, which would put unusuall stresses on the straps, or causing them to slip. SO, also IMO there should be a diagonal bar running from the rear passenger side to the intersection of main hoop, and the diagonal from the floor. Cross bracing that would leave a straigh bar to mount a harness to between the rear driver support and this diagonal.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sporkcrx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">And if he didn't want to race, but to just enjoy track days safely? It would be perfectly fine.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Sure, until he's in a fender bender on the street and gets his brain rattle by a buncha bars surrounding his head. I have a SCCA approved Hard Dog Hardcore roll bar for HPDEs, but it stays out of my car for everything else.

*shrug*


Modified by mtbprelude at 2:34 PM 5/8/2006

 

I can't understand why the guy didn't just buy a Hard Dog bar. The Hard Core is SoloI approved and probably cost significantly less ($375.00) than that bar and allows full seat travel and is further back from his melon.

 

Nice ae86 in the garage. What are the plans with it?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Targa250R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Will it help a minivan full of 3-year olds if he were to crash into them while participating in street jackassery? No.

This is the "Road Racing/Autocross" forum - not the "Canyon Idiocy" forum.</TD></TR></TABLE>

it's also not the over dramatic forum, the guy posted up a picture of a roll bar design. Telling him anything about what the driver of the car should or should not do is worthless.

It's far more usefull to give insight about his design so he can make better ones in the future which like the driver or not will improve thie safety.

I'm not familiar with maita rollovers except that I've seen a couple of end results and even the cheap auto power versions have protected the driver from harm. The fact it's on the floor and not the shelf IMO at least braces the main hoop from colapsing back a bit more although I would have incorporated some a pillar bracing as this area I'd imagine is similar to Hondas which can colapse quite easily.

Also on the diagonal I would have it intersect the rear upright. On the really serios cages I've seen for rally cars and such this is supposed to make it stronger.